The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Women

The Foxfire Magazine, a literary journal first published in 1967 in Rabun Gap, Georgia, was founded on the belief that stories and meaning could be found in Appalachian spaces, not only in classics such as Shakespeare. Filled with poetry and prose from local students and authors, the magazine also featured interviews with relatives and neighbors. These oral histories conducted by students from the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School quickly became the star of the magazine and, eventually, the material which generated the multi-volume Foxfire book series.

Now, pulled from the vast Foxfire archive, come twenty-one oral histories from southern Appalachian women. These remarkable narratives illuminate a diverse regional culture held together by the threads that are woven between women and place, and through generations. Told sometimes with humor, sometimes with sadness, but always with a gripping rawness and honesty, the stories recount women’s lived experiences from 1967 to the present, from Georgia and Alabama into Tennessee and the Carolinas. The women’s own voices cover work, family, and community; Cherokee and Black experiences; changes in Appalachian culture; and the importance of mothers and grandmothers, which provides a glimpse into the roles and culture of mountain women in the 1850s-1900s. As a collective, the stories speak against the notion of tough mountain women often put forth by writers, ethnographers, and journalists. Rather, the vulnerability in these pages offers a richness of women’s experiences and speaks to the many varied expressions of their strength.